I like cherry natural myself also. It is beautiful all on it’s own. I have a bunch of cherry flooring left over from a job that I’ve been using for projects. After I milled some out, I tried a few different stains on scrap pieces. All different shades look good IMO. Just a matter of experimenting and see what you like. A few scraps and a dab of different stain on each one and you can keep them for future reference too if you label them

I’m with Bruce and Ben, I don’t like to stain cherry. But if you do, just remember that the cherry will darken with age so stain a little lighter than what you want the final color to be. Otherwise I really like tung oil on cherry, it warms the color without hiding the natural beauty of the wood.

I have never been a big fan of stains. Especially on cherry. If you want to make one type of wood look like another by using stain, why not just build it out of that kind of wood. I like the variation in colors of natural wood. Stains can enhance some woods but cherry always seems to be stained so dark that you can’t see the grain. Be patient and let that cherry darken on it’s own. No stain can match the beauty of letting it age and take on it’s own natural color!

Plain ole boiled linseed oil makes a nice finish on cherry. Followup with some thinned polyurethane for a more glossy finish.

I also finish cherry with the mentioned cherry Minwax stain but before I stain it I put on a coat of Seal Coat (shellac base) diluted three parts alcohol to one part Seal Coat. This initial wash coat almost eliminates the blotching often experienced when staining cherry. Follow up with a coat of full strength seal coat the three coats of diluted poly (diluted one part poly to one part mineral spirits.)

I use Cherry a LOT, and I’ve colored it anywhere from “just a hint” to “really dark” ... just depends on what the end use/customer wants/likes. I’ve had great results using Charles Neil’s Blotch Control along with a variety of dyes. The combination really irons out the differences between heart/sap wood, which can be a pain if you’re trying to build out of nothing but heartwood in order to eliminate the color differences. The Blotch Control + dye simply makes sapwood disappear.

Another great recipe to consider is simply a washdown with a mild solution of Lye in warm water … it ages Cherry decades in only a few minutes. I personally don’t like to wait out the aging process, and this simply speeds up the inevitable.

I am such an ANTI-FAN of Linseed Oil that I won’t even allow it in my shop. I have a can from about 1950 that I use on occasion to wipe down shovel handles & such … to me, that’s about all it’s good for. Learn to use dyes and you will soon abandon BLO.

-- - dabbling in sarcasm is foolish … if you’re not proficient at it, you end up looking stupid … ... ...

I try to never stain cherry, The natural mellowing of the wood is beautiful. But if I ever put stain on cherry, I use Minwax cherry stain. It doesn’t change the color much, but adds a slight depth to the finish.